1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wall-mounted safety boxes, such as small safes or vaults, and more specifically, this invention relates to a cover and latching arrangement for a wall-mounted safety box.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, safety boxes, such as small safes or vaults mounted in the walls of a building, have been constructed with a door hinged to the body of the safety box. A locking mechanism is generally located on the inner surface of the door, perhaps being located within a housing, and this locking mechanism, of course, protrudes into the hollow interior of the safety box when the door is closed. While this protrusion into the safety box in the closed position of the door is not ususally objectionable, when the door is opened it can be a nuisance. As the doors are frequently only permitted to open through approximately 90.degree. of travel, which in itself restricts access to the interior of the safety box, the protruding locking mechanism further restricts accessibility to the interior of the safety box.
One solution to this problem has been to provide a completely removable door or cover. With this approach, a latching arrangement must be utilized that not only provides the selective sealing and unsealing of the previous locking mechanism, but must also provide the supporting and positioning function formerly provided by the permanent hinge mounting.
The conventional practice adopted to provide the desired latching arrangement has been to provide one or more dead bolts actuated in conjunction with the locking mechanism. However, the systems employed to manipulate the dead bolts are typically quite complex, involving the use of numerous cams, springs, gears and levers. Also, the tolerances in these systems are quite tight, and hence these systems are costly to produce, both in terms of the number of parts needed and the manufacturing processes involved. In addition, due to the complexity of these systems, malfunctions may occur which are irritating to the owner of the safety box and which may be costly to repair.
Thus, there is a need for a safety box which has a non-complex, reliable and easily manufactured cover or door. The latching arrangement of this cover should be easily actuatable to selectively support and lock the cover in the box, to prevent access to the interior of the box, and to disengage the cover from the box for removal, in order to permit access to the interior of the safety box.